ObjectiveMicrotube associated protein-2 （MAP-2）， alpha-tubulin （α-tubulin）， and synaptophysin （SYP） are important proteins in neuronal signal communication. This paper observed the effects of modified Zhigancao Tang on the expression of serum α-Synuclein （α-Syn） and its oligomers， MAP-2， α-tubulin， and SYP of patients with liver and kidney deficiency of Parkinson's disease （PD）， analyzed their correlation， and evaluated the therapeutic effect of modified Zhigancao Tang in patients with liver and kidney deficiency of PD based on α-Syn transmission pathway mediated by neuronal communication in vivo. MethodsA total of 60 patients with PD who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into a treatment group （30 cases） and a control group （30 cases）. Both groups were treated on the basis of PD medicine， and the treatment group was treated with modified Zhigancao Tang. Both groups were treated for 12 weeks. The changes in UPDRS score， TCM syndrome score， and expression of serum α-Syn and its oligomers， MAP-2， α-tubulin， and SYP were observed before and after 12 weeks of treatment in each group. The correlation between the above-mentioned serum biological indexes and the levels of serum α-Syn and its oligomers was analyzed. ResultsAfter treatment， the TCM syndrome score， UPDRS score， UPDRS-Ⅱ score， and UPDRS-Ⅲ score of the treatment group were significantly decreased （P<0.05， P<0.01）. The UPDRS score， UPDRS-Ⅱ score， and UPDRS-Ⅲ scores in the treatment group were significantly decreased compared with those in the control group after treatment （P<0.05）. After treatment， the total effective rate of the control group was 63.3% （19/30）， and that of the treatment group was 86.7% （26/30）. The clinical effect of the observation group was better than the control group （Z=-2.03， P<0.05）. The total effective rate of the observation group was better than that of the control group， and the difference was statistically significant （χ²=5.136， P<0.05）. After treatment， the oligomer level of serum α-Syn and MAP-2 level in the treatment group were significantly decreased （P<0.05， P<0.01）. The levels of serum α-Syn and its oligomers， as well as α-tubulin in the treatment group， were significantly decreased compared with those in the control group after treatment （P<0.05， P<0.01）. Serum α-Syn was correlated with serum MAP-2 and α-Syn oligomer in patients with PD （P<0.05， P<0.01） but not correlated with serum SYP . Serum α-Syn oligomers of patients with PD were correlated with serum MAP-2 and α-tubulin （P<0.05， P<0.01） but not correlated with serum SYP level. Serum SYP of patients with PD was correlated with serum MAP-2 （P<0.05）. ConclusionModified Zhigancao Tang has a therapeutic effect on patients with liver and kidney deficiency of PD by inhibiting the production of α-Syn oligomers and intervening α-Syn microtubule transport pathway in vivo.

Pathogenesis of immune thrombocytopenia(ITP)is complex,with a high reoccurence rate after first-line treatment and limited efficacy of second-line treatment,especially in refractory ITP,for which there is a lack of effective treatment.In recent years,it has been found that impaired function of mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs)is also involved in pathogenesis of ITP in addition to humoral and cellular immunity.Exogenous infusion of MSCs or endogenous restoration of immunomodulatory function of MSCs is expected to be an effective treatment strategy for ITP.Therefore,this article reviews biological characteristics and immunomodulatory effects of MSCs and their research progress in ITP,with aim of providing new ideas for further elucidating pathogenesis and exploring effective treatment options of ITP.

Metallothionein(MT)is a group of low molecular weight metal-binding proteins rich in cysteine,which plays an important role in heavy metal detoxification,antioxidant,immune defense,cell proliferation,differentiation,and angiogenesis.In re-cent years,studies have found that MT can interact with a variety of immune cells to regulate innate and adaptive immune responses,thus playing an important role in the development of tumors,inflammatory diseases and autoimmune diseases.Therefore,this article reviews the biological characteristics of MT and its immunomodulatory effects,in order to provide new ideas for targeted therapy targeting MT.

Objective Five chloroplast(cp)genomes from members of genus Polygonatum were assembled by hybrid assembly technique,and their intraspecic and interspecific differences were analyzed by comparative genomic method.Codon usage patterns and influencing factors were determined,and the cp genome data were applied to understand the phylogenomic relationships in the entire genus Polygonatum along with the available data.Methods In this study,the chloroplast genomes of 5 species of genus Polygonatum were assembled using Unicycler software.Sequence alignment,collinearity analysis,boundary analysis and other methods were used to evaluate the interspecific differences of these five species.Nucleotide polymorphism analysis was used to discover the high-variation sites of the five species and their related species,predict the distribution of different long repeat sequences and SSRs,and then analyze the use bias of Polygonatum code.Finally,phylogenetic tree was constructed with the coding sequences of other 47 genus Polygonatum and their closely related species to explore their phylogenetic relationships in this study.Results ①Chloroplast genomes of 155 408-155 623 bp were assembled from five species of Polygonatum.A total of 132-133 genes were annotated,and 369 long repeats and 1553 simple repeats were detected.②The contraction and expansion of chloroplast genomes in 8 species were not obvious at the IRs boundary,and the size and distribution of individual genes at the LSC-IRs-SSC boundary,such as ndhF gene and ycf1 gene,were slightly different.No interspecific or intraspecific rearrangement was observed in 8 species.③ The high-variation regions of the 8 chloroplast genomes are mainly located in two single-copy regions,the duplicate copy region is relatively conserved,and the coding region is more conserved than the non-coding region.High nucleotide polymorphic loci rps16-trnQ,trnS-trnG,trnTUGU-trnL,ndhF-rpl32 and rpl32-trnL are located in the single copy region and most of them are gene spacer regions.④ The codon preference results showed that the codon preference of the five species was similar and mainly affected by selection pressure,and the third base of the codon played A dominant role and mainly ended in A/U.RSCU clustering heat map shows that PK and PZ,PCB and PS have close relationship.⑤ Phylogenetic trees divided 52 species into five branches:Ⅰ,Ⅱ,Ⅲ,ⅣandⅤ.PS,PK,PCB,PCZ and PZ were divided into ⅣandⅤbranches,among which PK and PZ were most closely related,while PCZ was more distant than the other four,was divided into the Ⅴbranch alone.Conclusion This study provided a reference for the phylogenetic research and molecular marker development of the medicinal plants of the Polygonum genus.

Pathogenesis of immune thrombocytopenia(ITP)is complex,with a high reoccurence rate after first-line treatment and limited efficacy of second-line treatment,especially in refractory ITP,for which there is a lack of effective treatment.In recent years,it has been found that impaired function of mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs)is also involved in pathogenesis of ITP in addition to humoral and cellular immunity.Exogenous infusion of MSCs or endogenous restoration of immunomodulatory function of MSCs is expected to be an effective treatment strategy for ITP.Therefore,this article reviews biological characteristics and immunomodulatory effects of MSCs and their research progress in ITP,with aim of providing new ideas for further elucidating pathogenesis and exploring effective treatment options of ITP.

Metallothionein(MT)is a group of low molecular weight metal-binding proteins rich in cysteine,which plays an important role in heavy metal detoxification,antioxidant,immune defense,cell proliferation,differentiation,and angiogenesis.In re-cent years,studies have found that MT can interact with a variety of immune cells to regulate innate and adaptive immune responses,thus playing an important role in the development of tumors,inflammatory diseases and autoimmune diseases.Therefore,this article reviews the biological characteristics of MT and its immunomodulatory effects,in order to provide new ideas for targeted therapy targeting MT.

Objective Five chloroplast(cp)genomes from members of genus Polygonatum were assembled by hybrid assembly technique,and their intraspecic and interspecific differences were analyzed by comparative genomic method.Codon usage patterns and influencing factors were determined,and the cp genome data were applied to understand the phylogenomic relationships in the entire genus Polygonatum along with the available data.Methods In this study,the chloroplast genomes of 5 species of genus Polygonatum were assembled using Unicycler software.Sequence alignment,collinearity analysis,boundary analysis and other methods were used to evaluate the interspecific differences of these five species.Nucleotide polymorphism analysis was used to discover the high-variation sites of the five species and their related species,predict the distribution of different long repeat sequences and SSRs,and then analyze the use bias of Polygonatum code.Finally,phylogenetic tree was constructed with the coding sequences of other 47 genus Polygonatum and their closely related species to explore their phylogenetic relationships in this study.Results ①Chloroplast genomes of 155 408-155 623 bp were assembled from five species of Polygonatum.A total of 132-133 genes were annotated,and 369 long repeats and 1553 simple repeats were detected.②The contraction and expansion of chloroplast genomes in 8 species were not obvious at the IRs boundary,and the size and distribution of individual genes at the LSC-IRs-SSC boundary,such as ndhF gene and ycf1 gene,were slightly different.No interspecific or intraspecific rearrangement was observed in 8 species.③ The high-variation regions of the 8 chloroplast genomes are mainly located in two single-copy regions,the duplicate copy region is relatively conserved,and the coding region is more conserved than the non-coding region.High nucleotide polymorphic loci rps16-trnQ,trnS-trnG,trnTUGU-trnL,ndhF-rpl32 and rpl32-trnL are located in the single copy region and most of them are gene spacer regions.④ The codon preference results showed that the codon preference of the five species was similar and mainly affected by selection pressure,and the third base of the codon played A dominant role and mainly ended in A/U.RSCU clustering heat map shows that PK and PZ,PCB and PS have close relationship.⑤ Phylogenetic trees divided 52 species into five branches:Ⅰ,Ⅱ,Ⅲ,ⅣandⅤ.PS,PK,PCB,PCZ and PZ were divided into ⅣandⅤbranches,among which PK and PZ were most closely related,while PCZ was more distant than the other four,was divided into the Ⅴbranch alone.Conclusion This study provided a reference for the phylogenetic research and molecular marker development of the medicinal plants of the Polygonum genus.

Objective:To explore the function of LIM and calponin homology domains 1(LIMCH1)in the development and progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC),along with their potential clinical applications.Methods:By utilizing transcriptome sequencing data from two groups of oral squa-mous cell carcinoma patients,along with bioinformatics analytical techniques such as Gene Ontology(GO)and gene co-expression networks,we identified genes that might play a pivotal role in the patho-genesis of oral squamous cell carcinoma.We employed real-time quantitative PCR and Western blotting to validate the expression patterns of these genes across twelve patient tissue samples.Furthermore,we con-ducted CCK-8 assays,flow cytometry analyses,and scratch wound healing assays to assess the impact of key genes on the biological behaviors of both the Ca127 oral squamous cell carcinoma cell line and the po-tentially malignant DOK oral lesion cell line.Additionally,we examined correlations between these key genes and clinical disease parameters in 214 oral squamous cell carcinoma patients using The Cancer Ge-nome Atlas(TCGA)data;gene set enrichment analysis(GSEA)analysis results were also incorporated to enhance our findings from real-time quantitative PCR and Western blotting regarding potential mecha-nisms underlying the action of these key genes.Results:The integrated analysis of sequencing data and bioinformatics revealed that LIMCH1 exhibited significantly reduced mRNA(P＜0.001)and protein levels(P＜0.01)in the oral squamous cell carcinoma tissues compared with normal control tissues.In the Ca127 cells,the low LIMCH1 level group demonstrated a larger wound healing area within 24 hours than the control group(P＜0.01),enhanced proliferation capacity over 72 hours relative to the control group(P＜0.01),and an increased apoptosis rate within 24 hours compared with the high expression group(P＜0.05).However,no significant differences were observed between the low and high level groups in DOK cells.Furthermore,it was determined that low LIMCH1 level correlated with poor prognosis in the patients(P=0.013)and a higher lymph node metastasis rate(P＜0.05).Investigations into the poten-tial mechanisms of action indicated that LIMCH1 did not influence the onset or progression of oral squa-mous cell carcinoma via the epithelial-mesenchymal transition pathway.Conclusion:LIMCH1 level may function as a promising biomarker to aid in the prognostic assessment of oral squamous cell carcinoma;however,its precise mechanistic role requires further investigation.

Osteoarthritis （OA）， rheumatoid arthritis （RA）， gouty arthritis （GA）， and intervertebral disc degeneration （IVDD） are the most common bone and joint-related diseases in clinical practice. They can all affect related joints， leading to joint pain， swelling， dysfunction， and other symptoms. The difference is that OA is mainly caused by joint wear and age-related degradation and is manifested as joint pain， stiffness， and limited movement. RA is an autoimmune disease， manifested as joint pain， swelling， morning stiffness， and systemic symptoms. GA is caused by abnormal uric acid metabolism， manifested as acute arthritis， and IVDD is caused by intervertebral disc degeneration. Studies have shown that the mechanism of the occurrence and development of these bone and joint diseases is extremely complex. Pyroptosis is closely related to these bone and joint-related diseases by participating in bone and joint inflammation， cartilage metabolism imbalance， extracellular matrix degradation， and pathological damage of bone and joint. Inhibition of bone and joint-related pyroptosis will effectively prevent and treat bone and joint-related diseases. At the same time， many studies have confirmed that traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） has a prominent curative effect and obvious advantages in the prevention and treatment of bone and joint-related diseases. TCM can reduce the inflammatory reaction of bone and joints， improve the pathological damage of bone and joint diseases， and relieve bone and joint pain by inhibiting pyroptosis. Therefore， this article aims to briefly explain the relationship between pyroptosis and the occurrence and development of bone and joint-related diseases and summarize the latest research reports on the intervention of pyroptosis in the treatment of bone and joint-related diseases by TCM monomers， TCM extracts， and TCM compounds. It offers new ideas for the in-depth study of the pathogenesis and drug treatment of bone and joint diseases and provides a basis for the clinical use of TCM to prevent and treat bone and joint diseases.

Objective:To explore the efficacy and safety of the modified VIALE-A regimen in the treatment of elderly (>75 years old) patients with intermediate or high risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).Methods:A retrospective case series analysis was conducted. Clinical data were collected from 7 MDS patients aged >75 years who were continuously treated with the modified VIALE-A regimen (azacytidine 75 mg/m 2 per day from day 1 to day 7 + venetoclax 200 mg per day from day 8 to day 28) from May 2021 to August 2023, and the patients were diagnosed according to the World Health Organization 2016 staging criteria and were determined to be at intermediate or high risk according to the revised International Prognostic Scoring System. The patients' efficacy and common adverse reactions were analyzed, and the Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis. Results:Of the 7 patients, 5 were female and 2 were male; the median age [ M ( Q1, Q3)] was 84 years old (80 years old, 90 years old). One patient failed the initial treatment, and the remaining 6 achieved complete remission or complete remission in bone marrow after induction therapy with the modified VIALE-A regimen in 1-2 courses. By the follow-up cut-off date of December 31st, 2023, the median follow-up was 10 months (5 months, 18 months) and the median overall survival time was 18 months (95% CI: 0-39 months). Grade 3-4 myelosuppression occurred in all 7 patients during the induction phase, with granulocytopenia lasting 7-10 d; Of the 64 courses of maintenance treatment, 54 (84%) had grade 1-3 myelosuppression; non-hematologic adverse reactions were mild; no treatment interruptions occurred in the cumulative 73 courses. Conclusions:The modified VIALE-A regimen is moderately efficacious in elderly patients with intermediate or high risk MDS, with controllable adverse reactions.